Would you buy five years worth of home supplies right now, anticipating visitors, or would you buy them when you require them? Would you build your own chocolate factory because your kids love chocolates, or buy it from a vendor? If you substitute supplies with data storage and chocolate factory with software, the right choice becomes less obvious.

That's because traditionally, software is offered as an on-premise application which has to be installed on a PC, which means you also need servers to run it and an IT department for maintenance. For you, the business owner, it ends up being an extravaganza, like running a chocolate factory just to have chocolates. But what if you didn't need to invest in heavy infrastructure? What if you could access your spreadsheets, customer records etc. online and pay for only as much data storage as you've used?

With the cloud, you can. Here are the top three benefits of running your business online:

1. It's affordable: You get all the features of installed business software at a fraction of the price. Because the cost of hardware and services is shared among all the users, there's nothing to own, monitor, manage or upgrade. So, periodically, you only spend a small amount to use the software (i.e. you spend just on OpEx, not on CapEx).

2. It's scalable: If you use Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software that runs internally on your servers, your IT dept typically makes ad-hoc scaling by throwing in more servers to handle an increasing client base. But with a cloud-based solution, your vendor provides the infrastructure you need as you grow.

3. It saves you time: Cloud computing software does this in two ways. First and foremost, you get to have all the information about customers--the interactions, calls and payment history--in one place because you can either integrate CRM, email and accounting software easily in the cloud, or go for a solution that is already integrated. With traditional software, it takes months to integrate information because it's stored in silos. And second, you can get your work done faster because the cloud-based solutions automate tasks you usually do manually, like data entry. Speed is one of those parameters you don't realize the importance of until you don't have it anymore.

Already, a large number of businesses in India are moving to the cloud. In fact, Gartner says the public cloud services market is expected to reach $1.9 billion by 2019. But is it right for you?

Should you be in the cloud?

With all the benefits, the cloud might still not be the right solution for you in some situations. So here are three basic guidelines you can use to decide if you should move your business online.

1. If you're a startup, the cloud is ideal. You pay for what you use and scale easily as you grow. You don't have to make upfront investment to procure servers and on-premise software licenses. Also, as a startup, you won't have any migration pains of moving your data to the cloud.

2. If you're an SMB using on-premise software, it would be wise to make a partial move to the cloud and then gradually move the rest, so you can manage the cost. The key is choosing the right cloud vendor to fit your budget.

3. However, the cloud may not be perfect for your business if you're using legacy applications. Cloud-based solutions don't integrate well with legacy software because of the difference in technology. Another scenario in which the cloud is not a good option is if you have an unreliable or slow internet connection.

After you've thought about these guidelines and decided which categories you fall into, the next step is to choose which part(s) of your business you should move online. Because sales is vital for any business, the first thing you should move to the cloud is CRM.

Then you can start using campaigns software for your marketing department, help desk software for your customer support agents, project management software to track your internal and external projects, an online office suite for your productivity needs and so on. The way the cloud works today, a company can run its entire business online.